Courts give bonus chasers the edge

WHISTLEBLOWING and simple emails to clarify pay-award queries are the latest tactics City financiers are using to get paid to the max as the annual bonus season reaches a crescendo in a nervous employment market.

Employment lawyers have noticed a marked pick-up in the number of calls they are fielding both from City workers and their bosses.

Staff want to know whether they have a case for asking for more while bosses are fretting over whether they are seen to be acting fairly in the way they have shared out the annual bonus pot.

With the much-vaunted revival in the City employment market yet to materialise, big banks are becoming increasingly worried about the potential for staff to use strong-arm ploys if they fear they may be axed before their annual bonus is paid out.

Employment lawyer Gareth Brahams of solicitors Lewis Silkin said: 'If sacking is on the cards, one way to enhance your position is to inform your compliance officer on what you think is a dodgy practice so you can argue it was not redundancy but because you blew the whistle.'

The head of employment law at a City firm that acts for a number of large European and US bulge-bracket banks said his clients are becoming increasingly worried about this trend.

'It clearly gives staff good leverage even if the allegations in the end prove not to be true. It's an easy method to use in these days of rigid compliance requirements,' he said.

Whistleblowing has been seen as a ground for lodging an unfair dismissal claim for the past five years. But the lawyer said that fears about its use have intensified since broker Collins Stewart last year became embroiled in dodgy-practice allegations by sacked former analyst James Middleweek.

Meanwhile, a flurry of high-profile discrimination and unfair dismissal claims last year coupled with recent tightening in equal-pay legislation has given staff more grounds to complain if they believe their employers are running an unfair bonus award system and greater powers to force bosses to divulge details on their peers' pay.

Legal experts point to former media analyst Louise Barton's sex discrimination battle with Investec - the case was eventually settled out of court - as a turning point for banks and fund managers, who now need to be more transparent in their awards calculations.

Employees have been buoyed by former Cantor Fitzgerald trader Steve Horkulak's successful claim for constructive dismissal and £1m damages award to compensate him for loss of future bonuses. Lawyers say the case has swung the calculations for future losses more in employees' favour than ever before.

Banks, fund managers and their lawyers will have to wait a couple more weeks before JP Morgan and Deutsche bring to an end this year's bonus season. Then they will know if their worst fear of a fresh onslaught of claims becomes a reality.